Odato: Resigning appointees can get unemployment

The Department of Labor says unemployment benefits are available for many of the roughly 2,500 appointees who have been forced to submit resignation letters to their Paterson administration employers. The benefits are available to any appointee who resigns according to the directives this month from Paterson’s aides as long as the person is in a post that doesn’t involve policymaking.

A labor department spokesman said he could not estimate how many people are in such jobs. The Paterson administration had to send out a second directive for the resignation letters because the first order appeared unenforceable since it required an undated resignation and was supposed to be submitted to an aide to Paterson rather than to the commissioner of the person’s agency.